Alumna: Wilson College's biggest problem is effective marketing

I graduated from Wilson College in 1995, and was in attendance in January when the Board of Trustees announced it would be following all of the recommendations put forward by President Mistick.

I was completely floored. I had met President Mistick at the Players' Club in Manhattan before she was sworn in, and she seemed to be very pro-Wilson, pro-women's college, and pro-Honor Principle. I'd come with concerns after a recent trip to campus where I'd heard from students that they didn't really follow the Honor Principle anymore. After listening to her speak, I left very excited about her possibilities as the incoming president. The former president of the college was unapproachable, stiff and unfriendly every time I met her, and subsequently turned me off of being involved with Wilson during her tenure. Meeting President Mistick, I thought she might really be someone who would look at what Wilson offered women, and help shape and modernize Wilson for the future - but obviously not in the way that she and the board have chosen to do so.

Can the board and the president honestly say that alumnae have known about all the problems facing Wilson? I sure didn't. Everyone I asked in my class didn't. As soon as we heard, we tried to do something. However, it came to my attention that students, staff and the administration believed, and still believe, the younger alumnae do not care about Wilson.

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We care. The Double-It Matching Fund started by pinesandmaples.com (where $81,000 was raised in less than a month) is a quickly thrown together example of that - but it seems as if the board and the president don't care that we care. Being asked to leave Warfield Auditorium before the announcement of the vote in January, getting followed through Warfield Hall by a security guard, then learning with students outside of the auditorium via Facebook and wilson.edu that the college would be going co-ed - those are all signs of alienation, by the board and the president. Alienation of alumnae - and, yes, younger alumnae that drove down that day to hear the outcome of something they knew very little about. Why is this important? Because I think the board and the president have forgotten one thing about the alumnae of Wilson College: We love Wilson. We were Wilson.

But really, what is Wilson?

Let me quote the "About Wilson" section on the school's website. Under "History and Traditions," these are the first two paragraphs:

- "History and Traditions

"Wilson College was founded in 1869 as a college for women, one of the first in the United States. The founders were the Rev. Tryon Edwards and the Rev. James Wightman. The Pennsylvania Legislature granted the original charter on March 24, 1869. Sarah Wilson, for whom the College is named, provided the initial gift for the establishment of the College. She was the first living woman in the United States to endow a college for women. ...

"The purpose of the college was described as an effort to provide for the education of young women in literature, science, and the arts. The Oct. 19, 1870, edition of the Franklin Repository stated that the 'effort will not be to cram the minds of pupils with facts, but to spend the time in development of thought so that the pupils will learn to think for themselves, and thus become leaders, instead of followers, in society.'"

These two paragraphs make me so proud to be an alumna of Wilson. They should make the president and the trustees proud to serve their roles within the college, and support and honor her original mission. To go co-ed makes Wilson one of many liberal arts colleges in Pennsylvania, and one that is not well-known anywhere outside of Chambersburg and Franklin County.

For example, how many college fairs have been attended where I live? (Westchester/Putnam counties, N.Y.) Probably none. In an area where horse-related enterprises are worth $3.4 billion, I hear about other colleges with equestrian studies programs, but never Wilson. In the past, I had offered to put up fliers and bring information to local schools, but have never received any supplies. I finally stopped asking. Wilson's marketing plan has always failed her.

If you ask 10 different alumnae on any given day how they found Wilson, most will tell you word of mouth. Like me. She can have the most beautiful campus in the world, a great faculty, good programs, but if none of that is advertised, then she basically doesn't exist.

On Feb. 13 of this year, I sent an email to five different people at Wilson I thought might be in charge of marketing. A Facebook page was offering to advertise open house dates for colleges with equestrian teams and programs. The page is an offshoot of a very popular horse show magazine in my area. I thought Wilson should know about it. I received a thank you via email. I have been back to check on the page, and still, nothing from Wilson. Why not? It costs nothing, and takes very little time to post a little blurb about the college.

Furthermore, I made the same suggestion to the Wilson College Equestrienne Team when they asked for items for their raffle to benefit the Sandy Hook Scholarship Fund at their upcoming IHSA horse show in March. The captain posted a small paragraph to the Facebook page, and received a nice post back from them offering to donate an item for the raffle, as well as requesting pictures of the team and the show, since they like to promote college teams doing service events. Free publicity for a great cause. Now if open house dates had already been posted on that page as well, maybe some prospective students would chose to look into Wilson College ...

Reconsider the co-ed decision, President Mistick and members of the board, and really look hard at your marketing department. We hear so much about how Wilson has failed to grow in the last 40 years, but it's not due to her mission. It's due to no one ever really promoting the college.

You want students to buy your product? Quite simply, you need to sell it, be proud of what you are offering, and offer something unique. They will come.

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